1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to communication systems and methods and more particularly to systems and methods for providing alert broadcasting.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is becoming increasingly important and desirable for societal authorities, such as municipal governments, universities, hospitals, the police, and security firms in large office buildings to be able to notify the people in the area under their control of a specific and unexpected danger. For example, if there is a school shooting, a hostage-taking, a fire, a hazardous chemical spill, a gas leak, an Amber Alert for a missing child, or any other event where the danger relates to a person's proximity, it is crucial that the authorities be able to communicate with key personnel and as many other people in the area as possible in order to warn them, to give them instructions as to how best to avoid the danger, how to avoid causing a diversion of the authorities' resources by becoming entangled in the initial danger or by creating a new peril, and to inform them when a hazardous situation has passed. Additionally, there are often less urgent needs to communicate with communities, such as boil-water advisories, travel advisories, weather advisories, school closings, compliancy notices, etc.
Unfortunately, known systems, such as public radio or television broadcasts, are typically directed to a fixed and limited set of communications devices and do not, therefore, take into account the modern reality that people use of a variety of different communications devices depending on the context. For example, in the case of a school shooting at a university, the police or university security service may broadcast a warning via the university radio or television stations; however, a student wearing headphones studying in a quiet corner of a basement room of a campus library might not receive this warning, and might not be noticed by campus security or passers-by. Unless the student fortuitously encounters another person who has heard the warning, he or she might remain oblivious to a danger which is perilously close. Although the student might possess some other means of communication (e.g. a cellular telephone, smartphone, or a laptop computer connected via WiFi to the school's network), the availability of such means are of little value if the authorities are not equipped to broadcast alerts through such communications means in an efficient and reliable manner.
There is, therefore, a need for a solution that provides for broadcasting alerts to a plurality of diverse communications devices, whether the devices are mobile or stationary, through a plurality of diverse communications means. It would include means for identifying appropriate recipients in connection with each type of communications device, such as by selection from a list or by determining each recipient's presence in a particular area. The solution should be configured to maximally utilize the capabilities of any device type, but also take into account the limitations presented by any other device type, and specifically should be capable of transmitting images, audio, video or documents when available. It would also be desirable for such a solution to be able to confirm receipt of the alert, to allow a response from the recipient to the broadcast source to give situational intelligence, and to allow a two-way discussion between the broadcast source and recipients to help direct them through the emergency. Furthermore, it should not enable a new pathway for “spam” or other unsolicited or undesirable information to reach the user.
Broadcasting an alert message to as many recipients as possible within a particular physical area poses an especially difficult problem in a public setting as it cannot easily be determined ahead of time what persons will be in the area and what communications devices they will bring with them. Additionally, many such recipients may be strangers to the area and any societal authority associated with the area, and so there may be no advance notice that they will be in that area. There is, therefore, a need for a solution which identifies as many potential recipients in a physical area as possible across as many communications means as possible regardless of whether such recipients are associated or unassociated with any societal authority, and whether or not any communications devices carried by such recipients are associated or unassociated with any communications nodes accessible by the societal authority.
Furthermore, since any transient people in the area are likely to have communications devices which are not associated with an alert broadcasting system of the societal authority, such communications devices are unlikely to be preconfigured to receive and display any alert broadcast by the societal authority. The problem remains, therefore, that a potential recipient may be identified, but no alert message may be displayed on their communications device. There is a need, therefore, for a solution which provides means for displaying an alert message on an unassociated communications device, or a communications device otherwise not preconfigured to receive the alert message.
Inasmuch as some such transient people in an area are likely to be in motion—walking through a university campus or airport, for example—it is to be expected that they are likely to be within the range of any wireless transceiver forming part of or cooperating with an alert broadcasting system for only a short period of time (i.e. the amount of time required to traverse the viable communications range of the transceiver-device pair). There is a need, therefore, for a solution which provides means for communicating an alert message to such devices as quickly as possible. Since many such devices will also not be previously identified to any alert broadcasting system, and will also not be preconfigured to receive and display alert messages broadcast thereby, the desired solution preferably also includes means for auto-discovering such devices, means for enabling the devices to receive an alert message, and means for communicating the alert message to the devices.
Such a solution would also be useful for community-oriented, non-emergency situations, such as public announcement alerts in schools, from police about traffic situations, etc.